It looks like in the future, we’re gonna verify our identities. Social media for the masses will be done with Identity verification. That’ll be the way to tell bots and people apart, stripping anonymity in the process.
Word that Mastodon is talking of age verification, we will definitely see instances adopt it. All is pointless if federating with an instance without age verification, and that makes me wonder if the Fediverse might split apart under that pressure.
It’s pure speculation, but we might see a verification tag, for those who did verify their identity, and those without are left without any tag, same as bot accounts. If the majority of people do eventually verify, that’ll cast doubt onto accounts who lack the tag. Instances could also go full whitelist mode, and all of those instances force you to verify to join. If that is to be the case, we either verify to talk to people, or we don’t and face the overwhelming bots.
But what do you think, how will the Fediverse navigate a dying internet?
In a way I feel this might give us new freedom. I’ve ditched a lot of online stuff over privacy and the amount of time and freedom in your head you get in return is amazing.
Don’t get me wrong the fediverse is a lifesaver when it comes to staying up to date about the stuff that matters to us (privacy, politics, Linux, ssh,…) so there will have to be some solution.
But in the bigger picture, fuck it. Read a book.